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More Americans are considering retirement

bloomberg.com

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Re: More Americans are considering retirement

#2

Post by dougmwne »

This sounds absolutely wonderful to me. At this point we have 2 generations straining for opportunities and advancement while the wealthiest and luckiest generation in the history of the country sits at the top of the ladder. Time for them to go enjoy their good fortune in Florida and let the rest of us crack into that turf they've been hoarding.

Re: More Americans are considering retirement

#7

Post by paulpauper »

dougmwne wrote: post #2

This sounds absolutely wonderful to me. At this point we have 2 generations straining for opportunities and advancement while the wealthiest and luckiest generation in the history of the country sits at the top of the ladder. Time for them to go enjoy their good fortune in Florida and let the rest of us crack into that turf they've been hoarding.

Not really. Most boomers and are not rich at all. Go to your local food store and you will probably find plenty of older employees...it's not just 20-somethings who are stuck in crappy professions or in a rut. Many boomers did not save for retirement and face the same problems young people do.

Also there are plenty of 20 and 30-year-olds on Reddit (such as on investing and FIRE subs) and hacker news who have sizable investments in real estate and stocks. The post-2009 bull market is the biggest and longest ever ,surpassing even the 80s and 90s in terms of real returns. Plenty of young people have and are getting rich from that, plus also the rise of lucrative FAANG jobs and also online marketing, social media, etc. This is not representative of all young people obviously, but to say that young people are being denied wealth due to older generation hoarding it ,is wrong too. There are plenty of opportunities for young people to get rich.

Regarding luck, boomers did not have as many ways to become wealthy compared to young people today. Although homes were cheaper , mortgage rate were much higher, inflation was much higher, there was no employer healthcare, real stock and real estate returns were poorer, professional jobs did not pay as well, etc. Adjusted for inflation, college grads 40 years ago made less compared to grads today.Homeownership rates were not higher during the 60s, 70s, and 80s despite homes being cheaper, in part because mortgages were so expensive and wages were not that good.

Re: More Americans are considering retirement

#8

Post by petilon »

throwdecro wrote: post #5

I wish articles like this provided some data as to what "affluent" is. How much money does the 48 year old have, and how much "house", that retirement looks to make sense to them? I'd rather have the dollar figures than the people's names.

Here's what a FAANG software engineer can expect to have at retirement: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Ryu_-mVYxSdJbW8lmf1z...

Re: More Americans are considering retirement

#9

Post by futureshock »

paulpauper wrote: post #7
dougmwne wrote: post #2

This sounds absolutely wonderful to me. At this point we have 2 generations straining for opportunities and advancement while the wealthiest and luckiest generation in the history of the country sits at the top of the ladder. Time for them to go enjoy their good fortune in Florida and let the rest of us crack into that turf they've been hoarding.

Not really. Most boomers and are not rich at all. Go to your local food store and you will probably find plenty of older employees...it's not just 20-somethings who are stuck in crappy professions or in a rut. Many boomers did not save for retirement and face the same problems young people do. Also there are plenty of 20 and 30-year-olds on Reddit (such as on investing and FIRE subs) and hacker news who have sizable…

Your anecdotes are absolutely not backed up by the data:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-depressing-chart-show...

Re: More Americans are considering retirement

#10

Post by throwdecro »

petilon wrote: post #8
throwdecro wrote: post #5

I wish articles like this provided some data as to what "affluent" is. How much money does the 48 year old have, and how much "house", that retirement looks to make sense to them? I'd rather have the dollar figures than the people's names.

Here's what a FAANG software engineer can expect to have at retirement: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Ryu_-mVYxSdJbW8lmf1z...

The idea that the FAANG gravy train can last 30 years is not realistic.

If at least half the letters in FAANG aren't blown away in that time period, it would suggest a tech environment so stagnant that it would be impossible to justify the compensation.

And lasting 30 years at a surviving FAANG company is such a low-probability prospect that it's not something reasonable to include in any future planning.

Very few FAANG engineers can actually expect this outcome.

EDIT: Removed shock word "preposterous", sorry about that.

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